{"id":7016,"date":"2026-03-16T12:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.takemeon.org\/dir\/?p=7016"},"modified":"2026-04-05T00:33:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:33:30","slug":"tovia-singer-we-have-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.takemeon.org\/dir\/2026\/03\/16\/tovia-singer-we-have-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Tovia Singer – We Have Thoughts!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before we begin with thoughts on Rabbi Tovia Singer\u2019s YouTube discussions and teachings, a quick teaching about Iranian Jews of Mashhad Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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X \u2013 Rabbi Tovia and Mashad crypto Jews understand what these are for!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matriarchs are always the keepers of tradition EVEN in a patriarch society like Southwest Asia! Learn more to understand \u201cwhy\u201d (NO hijabs in our SWA Indigenous peoples\u2019 lifeways)! The crypto-Jews of Mashhad, a city in northeast Iran, were forced to live their lives publicly as Muslims for more than a century, but continued to keep their ethno-religious lifeways in secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considered one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims, Mashhad, like Mecca and Medina today, did not allow Jewish settlement. However, a small Jewish community was founded in the 18th century at the invitation of Emperor Nader Shah, who sought to turn Mashhad into a commercial hub and made it his capital. However, by the time the Jews arrived, he had been assassinated, and they were permitted to settle only outside the city walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A REALITY TEACHING HERE: This Jewish experience of racial-religious exclusion is STILL the present day form of APARTHEID that stretches across the Muslim occupied and ruled lands THROUGHOUT the Middle East and North Africa \u2013 and, even, ELSEWHERE \u2013 but it is \u201cthe JEWS\u201d \u201cthe ISRAELIS\u201d that are accused of this by the United Nations of Arab-European colonial Christian, Muslim, and Marxist nations that are OCCUPYING Indigenous peoples\u2019 sacred ancestral lands WORLDWIDE \ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0f\ud83c\udf0e for colonial Allah, Christ, and Marx ruling dominionism!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nearly a century, the Jews of Mashhad lived in a state of constant friction with their Shiite neighbors. Tensions finally erupted into violence on March 26, 1839. On that day, a false accusation led to a blood libel and massacre in which dozens of Jews were murdered, young Jewish girls forcibly married to Muslims (meaning, legally RAPED for life), and Jewish homes and businesses looted and burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Iranian Jewish community\u2019s seven Torah scrolls were seized by Shiite clerics, and legend has it that they remain hidden within the walls of the city\u2019s main mosque \u2013 the Imam Reza Shrine \u2013 to this very day. A THEFT of an Indigenous people\u2019s sacred ancestral writings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, members of the Iranian Jewish community were faced with a cruel choice: convert to Islam or to die. Thus, for some 120 years, these Jadid al-Islam (\u201cnew Muslims\u201d) led a double life of prayers and Jewish rituals held in secret, including the wearing of tefillin, which were kept away from the ever-prying eyes of authorities and neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outwardly, they were devout Muslims, fasting during Ramadan, attending prayers at the mosque, and dressing in traditional Muslim attire. Yet from birth, each child had two names: an official Muslim name and a secret Jewish name. YES, this is a common practice, not just amongst captured \u201cforced\u201d Jews, but even amongst Jewish communities worldwide \u2013 even though a \u201csecret\u201d indigenous Jewish name does not apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the anusim of Spain, it was the women of the community who became the primary guardians of Jewish life in Mashhad. Observance of Jewish laws within the home rested largely in their hands \u2014 taharat mishpachah (family purity), Shabbat, kosher food, burial rites, and, most importantly, the ethno-religious education of children (language, laws, origin stories, and customs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended for Lakota People\u2019s Law Project NDNCollective The Red Nation Dallas Goldtooth Ginew Benton Jonathon Okut\u00e9 Maza Laura Susong H\u0101wane Rios Kaniela Ing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IF interested, go HERE to learn more about the Iranian Jewish community of Mashhad and other indigenous Jewish experiences in the Middle East and North Africa. \u2013 https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/en\/mashhadi_jews\/<\/a>
Seven Torah Scrolls in the Mosque Wall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced conversions of Jews are often associated with the Middle Ages, yet the case of the \u201cAnusim\u201d (forced converts) of Mashhad in northern Iran occured in the 19th century. Some of them even made their way later to the Land of Israel. This is a story of secret identities put to the test and a community that defied the odds to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: 200-year-old set of tefillin (phylacteries) from Mashhad. Gifted by the Mashhadi Jewish community of Great Neck, NY, to Dr. Joseph (Joe) Levine, who donated them to the National Library of Israel as testimony to the period when the Jews of Mashhad were forced to live as converts. The Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel. Anusim Jewish life in Mashhad Iran \u2013 National Library of Israel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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